tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67950885694935109042015-07-27T07:00:47.834+01:00The Well Said BlogBen Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-39545090407973957212015-07-20T17:14:00.000+01:002015-07-27T07:00:47.863+01:00Mind the Sponsorship Value Gap<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BxqSHvGwCdo/VajMMulP_UI/AAAAAAAAAqM/Asho29VtX-M/s1600/thWWURTRYU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BxqSHvGwCdo/VajMMulP_UI/AAAAAAAAAqM/Asho29VtX-M/s200/thWWURTRYU.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Here's a pub quiz question for you: How many of the world's top 100 businesses&nbsp;adorn Premier League football club shirts?&nbsp; </span></div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">It depends which measure you use of course, but whichever way you cut it, the answer is: not many.</span></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Taking PwC's list of <a href="http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/audit-services/capital-market/publications/assets/document/pwc-global-top-100-march-update.pdf" target="_blank">the top 100 global companies</a>, listed by market capitalisation, the answer is zero. Interbrand's top one hundred shows two: Hewlett-Packard (17, Tottenham Hotspur) and Chevrolet (86, Manchester United). Both lists have Chelsea's recently-departed Samsung (PwC, 28; Interbrand, 7) and other former sponsors such as Vodafone but it's clear to me that something is missing. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Incidentally, the PL's own recently-departed title sponsor Barclay's didn't make the top 100 of either list.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The Premier League is rightly feted as the biggest year-round global sporting property but the absence of the world's biggest brands got me thinking about a couple of things:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-size: large;">1.</span> There is clearly a value gap between what buyers want and what the sellers are offering. Club's have never been particularly good at <a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/marketing-should-be-investment-not-cost.html" target="_blank">speculating to accumulate</a> but with so many global mega-budgets not touching the PL, how much is being left on the table? It's clear to me that there is much work to be done in bridging that value gap.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-size: large;">2.</span> What is the point of sponsorship? In my mind it's a strategic partnership, used to accelerate the growth of one or more partners, where combined, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. In that case it absolutely matters with whom one partners and what that deal looks like. Looking at the PL, it looks like just another revenue stream with little concern for the identity of the shirt sponsor. Such partnerships do nothing to build equity in the club's own brand and a succession of lookalike logos on the shirt does nothing to build value in customer relationships. Short-termism is undermining much bigger long-term value.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">To me it's pretty clear what is missing: ownership of the customer. Smart and mature brands (those with the big marketing budgets) moved away from logo-based sponsorships years ago. There is an upper limit to the level of awareness a brand can achieve and at that point, those brands moved into the realms of long-term customer strategy: understanding, segmentation, personalisation, retention, loyalty, advocacy and lifetime value. These are marketing-led rather than sales-led organisations. They're in it for the long-term and partner only with like-minded organisations.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Of course there is a role for media value in sponsorship - particularly if you're a new market entrant, a challenger brand or operating in a hugely competitive or commoditised market - but marketing budgets are being spent on D2C platforms, where that brand can offer a life-enhancing and tailored value proposition at the right time to the right person. There is some work being done in the PL - and beyond - to try to adopt customer-centric practices but it's clear there is a long way to go before it can convince the market.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Sponsors should be viewed not as a revenue stream but a means to accelerate an existing strategy. We need to get out of the short-term sales mindset and understand how brands can bring value over and above just cash and understand that it's absolutely vital to work with the right partner. We need to understand that the brand's customers is also the club's and working together will bring a much richer experience and thus a better long-term return from that individual. The emergence of a marketing - rather than sales - led commercial model is now a necessity.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Such partnerships bring commercial elasticity and can help transform an otherwise rigid business model. There is a vast amount of commercial value out there just asking to be harnessed but we do need to do a little bit of work first.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-91022039170510439222015-07-13T12:45:00.002+01:002015-07-13T12:45:48.788+01:00Why We Don’t Need Digital Strategies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-viucJWWMWDk/VaOkvbuNPwI/AAAAAAAAAp0/Qq94CeijFVE/s1600/untitled%2B%25287%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-viucJWWMWDk/VaOkvbuNPwI/AAAAAAAAAp0/Qq94CeijFVE/s200/untitled%2B%25287%2529.png" width="200" /></a></div><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">We all need a digital strategy right? I am not sure, myself. I have to be honest, I think anyone talking about creating “digital” strategies is totally missing the point.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Many marketers – most probably those missing the above point – are ingrained in traditional channels: advertising, PR, direct marketing etc. When new methodologies become available as “new media” did in the late 1990s, they are simply pegged onto the traditional model as a new channel.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">This all sat quite comfortably until web-based marketing matured (far quicker than others, it might be said), pop-ups disappeared and search became king. At the same time, a new phenomenon – social media – sprang up and so began Web 2.0 – an environment where content is pushed as well as pulled and shared and re-shared.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Fast forward to 2015 and one of the buzzwords in marketing circles is “disruption”. The rise of direct-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer technology platforms and the marketing opportunities they create mean that the traditional marketing model itself has been disrupted, if only we all recognised it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">We live in an ever-more-connected world, one where now the internet on its own is not good enough: all the talk now is of the internet of things, a world where <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">every</i> device conceivable is connected to the internet and controlled through your smartphone. We are now marketing to a generation that just does not recognise a model where content is solely consumed but it’s created, curated and shared with its virtual community. The notion that we are all now media owners would not even be given a second thought by what Google call “Generation C”: it’s an innate birthright as far as they are concerned.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">This is a generation of people for whom everything is mobile and gratification is instant. Everything is accessible, everywhere and whenever we want. And if we don’t want it, we move on quickly to something we do want.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">This is a generation for whom ownership of material things doesn’t make much sense. Much better to match up supply and demand of goods and services and pay for what you use. Paying to have a car sitting idle on your driveway doesn’t add up when an application can match you up with someone nearby who has a car you can borrow for a short time. Hence the rise of Uber, Airbnb and multiple other services who have recognised the concept of the sharing economy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif; mso-themecolor: text2;">There are still many people out there whose have the word “digital” in their job title (there are still some whose title includes “new media!”). It’s not their fault. It’s the by-product of a linear, analogue and outdated mindset. Bolting on “digital” as a separate channel is fundamentally to misunderstand what is going on all around us. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Everything</i> now is digital. We don’t need digital strategies, we need strategies for a digital world.</span><br /><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br /><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">This article first appeared on </span></em><a href="http://www.futuresport.co/" target="_blank"><em><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Future Sport</span></em></a><em><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">, a new website devoted to the convergence of sport, marketing and technology.</span></em><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-36494248204646360402015-06-15T07:10:00.000+01:002015-06-15T08:50:21.210+01:00Why the HD Wifi Debate is a Red Herring<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6DZ_y6glmhM/VX5y50g6AnI/AAAAAAAAApc/2JNdnNsoWsU/s1600/redherring.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6DZ_y6glmhM/VX5y50g6AnI/AAAAAAAAApc/2JNdnNsoWsU/s200/redherring.png" width="200" /></a></div><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="color: black;">Barely a day passes at the moment without a new debate about stadium High Density WiFi kicking off in one of my LinkedIn Groups. Without doubt it’s one of the hottest topics in the industry as we all try to wrestle with the eternal question of how it pays for itself. However, I would argue that there is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">way</i> too much emphasis on connecting the stadium and almost no debate about why we’re actually looking to connect it in the first place.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">What really excites me is the potential of the mobile platform. Yes, connecting your venue up is important and you should do it but there are many reasons why I think that there is way too much importance attached to the WiFi itself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">When we’re talking about <a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-connected-stadium-were-all-asking.html" target="_blank">RoI</a>, we’re all too focussed on the matchday experience. Ninety minutes on a Saturday represents 0.89% of the week’s time, so why are we not thinking about monetising our fanbase throughout the rest of the week? Connecting the stadium helps on a matchday but it doesn’t take me to point out the shift to mobile and if you can create a platform to communicate, learn more about your customers and monetise them 24/7 through micro-transactions then that it a much more exciting proposition.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Secondly, the traditional sports model doesn’t lend itself to the digital experience we’re trying to achieve. Because there is typically nothing to do before or after most events and half time is a scrum, we’re missing out on the benefits that connectivity brings. Trying to justify a £1m spend on hardware through incremental burger sales is either going to take a number of years or leave you encouraging morbid obesity amongst your fans. Trying to shoehorn an RoI model into what we already have doesn’t do the hardware spend justice: the onus must be on venue owners to build an all-day multi-sensory physical and digital experience.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Connectivity is now no more than a utility. These days we pick our coffee shops and hotels based on the availability of (free) WiFi and whilst connecting 20,000+ people at the same time is more of a technological challenge, it’s one that should now come as standard. I’ve argued previously that we tend to ask the wrong questions as regards the </span><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">HD WiFi RoI Model</span><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> and there are two main stumbling blocks in my experience: firstly,&nbsp;</span></span><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">a lack of over-arching marketing and customer engagement strategy and secondly a the tendency for internal business units to operate in silos. One of my clients is now able to offer the complete solution: HD Wifi, mobile platform and the consultancy expertise to make it all happen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Cracking the HD WiFi nut needs an holistic, co-operative approach. Of course, this approach all requires a visionary rightsholder, who is prepared to commit the time, resource and investment. But then surely anything worth doing is worth doing properly?</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span></span></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #44546a; mso-themecolor: text2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><em>This article first appeared on <a href="http://www.futuresport.co/" target="_blank">Future Sport</a>, a new website devoted to the convergence of sport, marketing and technology.</em></span></span></span></div><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-21789591409507769442015-06-05T09:55:00.002+01:002015-06-15T07:11:02.756+01:00"Official" is Dead. It's Official.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dNptJlE44WU/VXFgeQqaYjI/AAAAAAAAApI/i9Q0aqpqWB4/s1600/primordial_hydra_mtg_by_chase_sc2-d5ap96u.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dNptJlE44WU/VXFgeQqaYjI/AAAAAAAAApI/i9Q0aqpqWB4/s200/primordial_hydra_mtg_by_chase_sc2-d5ap96u.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">In the early fourth century, as Emperor Constantine and his newly-consecrated bishops pored over the multiple Christian gospels before deciding which ones would ultimately become the New Testament and which would thereafter be labelled "heretic", there inadvertently became groups known as "gnostics": Christians who believed in alternative versions of the Christ story but who did not subscribe to the core&nbsp;tenets of the new "official" religion of the Roman Empire.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Gnosis means "knowledge" in Greek and these gnostics believed that they did not need a Church&nbsp;telling them how they should engage with their God. They didn't need a middle man, a medium to help them communicate. We are in the midst of a whole new era of Gnosis, albeit of a very different kind.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The ability to communicate directly with people -&nbsp;on their terms, at the right time, with the right message and tone - is finding new ways to disrupt traditional models on an almost daily basis. Changing customer behaviour and attitudes as well as the ongoing technological ability to deliver against them means that linear, analogue business models are in danger of extinction.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I've written on this blog <em>ad nauseum&nbsp;</em>about the shift&nbsp;from a broadcast to a D2C model in media and <a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/brand-love-its-not-what-you-say-its-how.html" target="_blank">sponsorship</a> but the rise of C2C is equally exciting. Generation C have developed the Sharing Economy - effectively directly matching up supply with demand and missing out the middle man. We've seen taxi drivers protesting in various cities around the world&nbsp;against the rise of Uber; we see the hotel model being disrupted by services like Airbnb; those in the recruitment industry are seeing LinkedIn encroach on their traditional space. Look out also for Kwanji - whom I encountered at a recent FinTech pitching event - who marry supply and demand in the ForEx market, subverting the up-to-12% bank charges.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Where all of&nbsp;this leaves the traditional sports model is open to question but it's something it needs to start to consider. At some point in the very near future it will need to pick a horse: fight, try to control and legislate against it or roll with the punches, embrace and work out how to monetise it. "Sharing" is synonymous with Generation C: of the many stories to come out of the recent Pacquaio-Mayweather fight was the successful application&nbsp;of Periscope and there are already several stories where live streaming technologies are asking questions of the traditional, linear model.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The music industry initially tried to&nbsp;resist as illegal streaming sites threatened to take the record companies out of the picture at the same time as&nbsp;MP3 challenged the retailed compact disc model. In the end - and despite many high profile bands upsetting their fans with threats of legal action - the industry took the view that if they couldn't beat them, then the best thing to do was to join them and music is now ubiquitously (though not&nbsp;wholly)&nbsp;downloaded or legitimately streamed. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">There are multiple easily-locatable illegal sites which stream live sport, there are fairly straightforward ways to subvert geo-blocking and - appealing to the requirement for instant gratification of Generation C - the content can appear in easily-digestible six-second Vine clips.&nbsp; And like the hydra, for every one that gets shut down, another springs up.The advent of Periscope, Meerkat and other streaming technologies opens the debate further and as HD Wifi becomes the norm in venues, will only become a bigger challenge.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Understanding that this is how people actually behave is the first step. The second is to acknowledge that however smart we think the official structure is, there are even smarter people one step ahead working out how to subvert it. The third step is to appreciate that trying to bend your potential customers to your will is only going to turn them off. No matter how many "heretics" were burnt by the Church, the gnostics can claim an eventual victory as the "official" version of history has been steadily eroded over the years.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">So as such behaviour represents a massive threat to a model with which we've become accustomed over the past 30 years, so it also represents a huge opportunity to refresh and modernise the way sport commercialises its customers. A positive comparison can be made with the gaming sector which has moved from an inelastic packaged goods model to various structures which monetise their customers through a more flexible, scalable micro-transactional one. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">There are so many ways now to achieve "marketing gnosis" it makes little sense to me to fight it.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><em><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The European Sponsorship Association will be debating whether the "official" sponsorship model is dead at its Annual Summit on November 18th. Click&nbsp;<a href="http://sponsorship.org/summit/summit-home/" target="_blank">here</a> for more information.</span></em><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-56028873001888432722015-03-25T17:30:00.000+00:002015-03-26T10:22:59.610+00:00Five Observations from #SEATLondon<span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Last week witnessed the inaugural European </span><a href="http://www.seatconsortium.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">SEAT Conference</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">, an event at which I was privileged to be asked to co-host a CRM Workshop (thanks </span><a href="http://www.twitter.com/fionagreen66" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Fiona</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">!). For the uninitiated, SEAT (or Sports &amp; Entertainment Alliance in Technology) is run by the irrepressible <a href="http://www.twitter.com/cbrcio" target="_blank">Christine Stoffel</a> and has been a major date in the US calendar for the best part of a decade.&nbsp;Its content is like nothing else I am aware of in the UK but it's vitally important in my view that SEAT and other events like it go from strength to strength over here. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Here are a few observations from the day (there would have been more but I had to leave early as my wife started contracting!):</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="color: orange; font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>"Do you put an ROI Model on Urinals?"</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Kicking off with what was probably the quote of the day, the impressive Bob Jordan of Van Wagner sports summed up succinctly why we're asking the wrong questions about whether or not to install High Density Wifi at venues. A <a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-connected-stadium-were-all-asking.html" target="_blank">recent post</a> on this blog made exactly the same argument, I just needed about 250 more words.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="color: orange; font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>Focus on UX =&gt; User Adoption =&gt; Revenues</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">This argument was reinforced by a very insightful case study on the Wifi solution installed for last year's Ryder Cup at Gleneagles. It was made very clear that the focus was on the user experience rather than immediately trying to sell stuff, arguing that unless people actually wanted to download and use the accompanying mobile app the whole exercise was pretty futile. It was refreshing to hear and un</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">like pretty much any other conversation I've had on the HD Wifi RoI model. And guess what, the high levels of user adoption led to more than £14m in revenues over the platform.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="color: orange; font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>The Model is there to be Challenged</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Continuing that theme, the busiest access point during the Ryder Cup was in the beer tent. Of course the nature of golf lends itself more to customer downtime but it just highlights the opportunities that are there if we are prepared to build additional content around the main sporting content. If the current model doesn't lend itself to new ways of engaging with fans, create something new that does.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="color: orange; font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>Content isn't just Consumed</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Another interesting stat from the day was that more data was uploaded than downloaded&nbsp;at Madison Square Garden, adding more fuel to the argument that content creation is a two-way street. Fans these days expect to be able to engage in their own ways, share it with their network and if that means that they're not 100% focussed on the content <em>you</em> own, so be it, embrace the revolution and work out how to make money from it.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="color: orange; font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>It's not what you want to sell, it's what they want to buy</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">An over-riding theme of the day in my mind was the difference in mindset between rightsholders in the US and over here. Yes, of course, there are many reasons why we can't just implement the US model in Europe and there is a natural inclination over here to dismiss the non-sport elements of the US "entertainment" model. There was also plenty of evidence to suggest that our friends in the States are a long way from demonstrating the finished article but they are just not afraid to try to get it right. What I love about&nbsp;the entertainment business in the US is their willingness to find new ways of making it easier for people to spend their money: they listen to what people like or don't like, they're prepared to innovate, to&nbsp;take a utilitarian view and will invest in the short term to drive customer satisfaction, loyalty and spend in the long-term. Even though we are a long way behind over here, I would hazard a guess that our American counterparts would still be prepared to listen to our experiences to see what else they could learn.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">The great thing about the content at SEAT for me is that none of what was said is rocket science, it's eminently achievable in sport over here, we just need to be bothered to think about things slightly differently. Of course, some rightsholders have had some successes but we tend to nibble around the edges rather than commit to the concept of engaging our customers as a principle.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The next SEAT event is in San Francisco in July: I'd highly recommend taking a look.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-41073268176112404612015-03-03T17:52:00.000+00:002015-03-25T12:30:12.217+00:00Five Thoughts on Premier League Riches<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xvCvMGi6mOw/VRKqQXk_ZtI/AAAAAAAAAog/gtIx10TKKaU/s1600/bfb9d722-5527-49ea-a3ed-095691955b08-original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xvCvMGi6mOw/VRKqQXk_ZtI/AAAAAAAAAog/gtIx10TKKaU/s1600/bfb9d722-5527-49ea-a3ed-095691955b08-original.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">So, the money keeps rolling in. Hot on the heels of the landmark domestic TV rights deal, comes news from SW6 that Chelsea have secured a new 5-year £200m sponsorship deal with Yokohama Rubber. The perception is that being in the FA Premier League is a license to print money and the good times will keep on&nbsp;rolling. The reality is not quite so straightforward. Here are some big talking points that need to be addressed:</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="color: orange; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><strong>What if you're not at the apex?</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">I </span><a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/six-things-you-need-to-know-about.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">wrote </span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">a couple of years ago that Manchester United's shirt will not be "sponsored". Potato, pot-ato. Chelsea have now joined the ranks of mega "sponsorship" wealth but those that can command such revenues are few and far between. Those clubs trying to be United or Chelsea-lite are barking up the wrong tree. You need to stand on your own feet and work out specifically what value you can offer sponsors. Don't lead with media value: it's a commodity you don't control and which can be undercut. It's time to put the marketing horse in front of the sales cart.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>TV is only the beginning</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Even until relatively recently, FAPL clubs' revenues were reasonably evenly-split between TV, matchday and commercial (sponsorship, retail) income. Now TV revenue accounts for up to 75% of some clubs' revenues. This should concern the boards of those clubs for a number of reasons: 1) where's the competitive advantage vs those clubs that are in the same position? 2) they have little control over their own long-term planning, all they can do is wait for the next TV deal &amp; accept whatever is on the table; 3) they're building very little leverage for any future D2C broadcast model. The smart clubs are using the TV revenues to invest in creating a much more interesting value proposition for sponsors, fans and down the line, they will have more leverage against broadcasters.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="color: orange; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><strong>Matchday revenue does still matter</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">There is a clamour for reduced ticket prices, or even an argument for letting fans in for free. Broadcasters won't be happy if their £5bn doesn't guarantee full stadia and therefore a strong visual product. Of course there is an argument for reducing ticket prices but this argument is a hammer to crack a walnut. "Free" can all-too-easily equate to there being no perceived value.&nbsp;There is a smarter middle way - which involves enhancing value for money and personalising the experience - but we don't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Too many metaphors in one paragraph?</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><strong>What's the point, if it's all going straight out of the back door?</strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">More money, more debt. That's been the pattern over the past twenty years as whatever revenue increases have been generated, clubs have spent it even quicker. Great that you can double the revenues from your shirt sponsor but if a) you're just going to spend that money on player wages and agents fees and b) they're not going to add value to the fans' experiences, the whole thing seems like an exercise in futility. Clubs should be taking large portions of these various windfalls to improve the lot of the fan, especially those in the younger age groups and build some institutional value in their business.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><strong><span style="color: orange; font-family: Trebuchet MS;">How can football make it easier for itself?</span></strong><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">We've exempted investment in the development of the next generation of players; we've exempted investment in the development of better stadia. How about exempting investment in ensuring the next generation of fans still want to&nbsp;come to or watch FAPL football on TV? Time to review <a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/ffp-question-literally-no-one-is-asking.html" target="_blank">FFP regulations</a>?&nbsp;It may even be that down the line, investment now in our customers will improve our leverage and actually drive up the value of future broadcasting deals.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-61316259242151994842015-02-13T11:45:00.001+00:002015-02-13T14:16:08.829+00:00Landmark FAPL TV Deal - The Hard Work Starts Now<span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">So, job done for another three years? The FA Premier League have concluded the domestic TV rights sales for seasons 2016/17 to 2018/19, generating an astonishing £5.136bn from the seven packages sold to BSkyB and BT, more than half a billion ahead of its own forecasts. With overseas sales and title sponsorship revenues to follow,&nbsp;it is a phenomenal amount of money and kudos is unreservedly due to Richard Scudamore and his team.</span> <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FTNKmVyJ7qg/VN3XhbgvkiI/AAAAAAAAAn8/VRV_UNMJLQQ/s1600/Picture1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FTNKmVyJ7qg/VN3XhbgvkiI/AAAAAAAAAn8/VRV_UNMJLQQ/s1600/Picture1.png" height="199" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">FAPL TV Revenues 1992 - 2019 </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">(Overseas Revenues to be added to 2016-19)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Interestingly and perhaps unsurprisingly, there was a strong immediate reaction from fans, media and ex-players alike arguing that now is the time to use this extraordinary windfall to subsidise ticket prices. Full stadia are key to the overall broadcast experience (and the health of the sport as a whole)&nbsp;and it's critical that football takes the time to understand that simply continuing to plough the increased revenues into the pockets of players and agents is the road to ruin. However reduced ticket pricing on its own is not going to solve the problem.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Yes, price is an enormously important consideration. However, value is the often-overlooked other side of the coin. Discounting sets any business off down a slippery slope. Start discounting and it's often hard&nbsp;to stop doing so. Much better for me, to look at the model the other way around and ask how we can provide value for money. It may be possible to maintain pricing levels and still fill the stadia. The key is investment in the experience: for too long we've been raising prices without actually bothering to do too much about ensuring that the asking price represents a commensurate improvement in the value for money.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I've written<em> ad nauseaum</em> on this blog about changing customer behaviour and my concerns that the current rigid, one-size-fits-all model is just not going to appeal to the next generation of fans and the subsequent effect it might have on both attendance and viewing figures in the future. FAPL Clubs' toplines are secure now for the next four years but it remains to be seen how serious they are about shoring up the bottom line (we've already seen Chelsea make Eden Hazard their highest-paid player this week). </span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Reducing ticket pricing is a serious debate that needs to be had - and now. However, down the line that there is a strong argument that the next generation of fans are just not going to find the current product appetising, whatever the cost of entry. Far better - in my view - to look at what fans actually want and price it accordingly. That means investment, a word football hasn't fully understood yet. Might <a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/ffp-question-literally-no-one-is-asking.html" target="_blank">Financial Fair Play exemptions</a> for such activity be a positive first step? The hard work actually starts now.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-10062223401713974532015-02-03T09:36:00.003+00:002015-02-03T10:01:57.777+00:00The Argument For A New Commercial Model Pt II<span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">So what does the new model look like? In my&nbsp;</span><a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/the-argument-for-new-commercial-model.html"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">last post </span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">I argued that football clubs (and sporting organisations in general) needed to react to multiple rapidly-evolving dynamics around it to create a new commercial model. This model is absolutely predicated on ownership of the customer.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eTWzvmoivso/VNCUW1Md5tI/AAAAAAAAAns/qVB-dVuDdjk/s1600/Picture1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eTWzvmoivso/VNCUW1Md5tI/AAAAAAAAAns/qVB-dVuDdjk/s1600/Picture1.jpg" height="136" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">In the current model, everything comes back to media. Fifteen years ago, most top English clubs split their commercial revenue reasonably equitably between TV revenue, commercial income (sponsorship, retail etc) and matchday receipts. In recent years, that pie chart has become far more heavily skewed in favour of TV and whilst Manchester United have done an unbelievable job in generating new commercial revenues, for the rest, they are utterly reliant on the FAPL itself&nbsp;continuing to do their heavy lifting for them.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">In the early days of the FAPL, it was widely accepted that the relationship between top flight football and the then nascent BSkyB was a perfect example of symbiosis. However Sky's business model has evolved to such an extent that where satellite TV 20 years ago was seen as a luxury, now (as part of its quadruple play approach) it's more of a utility. For sure, Sky benefits from owning FAPL rights but its existence is arguably no longer tied to it. Football meanwhile, runs along pretty much the same lines as it did in 1992/3, just with higher prices and ever higher operating losses.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The FAPL have done a phenomenal job in growing the central TV revenues for its constituents, especially in recent years. Westminster and Brussels have continually tried to make it easier to create competition but since the turn of the century we've seen NTL, On(ITV)Digital, Setanta and ESPN dip their toes in the water and then either withdraw tactfully (ESPN) or disappear into the mists of time (everyone else). There is always talk - of al Jazeera, of Apple TV - but so far it's been just talk. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">BT Sport have so far proved the mostly likely serious long-term challenger to Sky's hegemony and&nbsp;for now everything looks rosy: no doubt the tender process currently underway for the TV rights for 2016-19 will provide another bumper pay day for all concerned. No doubt this will also mean still higher transfer fees, ticket costs and even higher losses.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">However I suspect this will be the last big deal of its kind. Where football goes after 2019 in my view, will be down to football. Four years doesn't sound like an especially long time but in "Generation C" terms, it's an eternity. Without labouring the points made in&nbsp;previous posts, even now people just aren't watching TV as they used to. The broadcasters have recognised this and consequently, have made multiple delivery platforms available as they strive&nbsp;to understand what their customers want and to try to stay one step ahead of them. Meanwhile, sport sits back and waits to see what's put on the table.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">We, as an industry, need more leverage. We need to understand better what drives the broadcasters' commercial imperatives and be prepared to invest in the tools we need to gain a greater element of control over our own destiny and reduce our absolute reliance on a relationship that is no longer symbiotic. During a great chat last week with <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fionagreen66" target="_blank">Fiona Green</a>, we absolutely agreed that a D2C media model is around the corner. Google are hovering in the wings but have made it clear they won't pay for rights. Our current model has no room for such players but should we be making it hard for D2C operators to enter the market?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I had lunch last week with another industry professional, who, like me has been a football supporter since we were young. We might now&nbsp;get to see our boyhood team once a season, we buy no merchandise, our value to our respective clubs is negligible. However we both spend more than £70 a month with Sky and are tied in on long-term contracts. We both agreed that if another, more convenient, cheaper operator was to offer us the same content we would seriously consider switching. There is no emotional attachment to the broadcaster, as we are always told there is with our club, but the question of who owns the customer in this context is absolutely clear. Until football redresses that balance, it will remain gratefully in debt to its broadcast paymasters.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><em>Fiona and I will be running a workshop on the Future of Sport's CRM Strategy at the SEAT Conference at Lord's on March 17th. This is a must-be-at event for all like-minded industry professionals. Click </em><a href="http://www.seatconsortium.com/" target="_blank"><em>here</em></a><em> for more information.</em></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-43111896100076413052015-01-15T10:29:00.002+00:002015-04-24T10:19:07.079+01:00The Argument For A New Commercial Model<span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">We're living through unprecedented upheaval. Economic pressures and a relentless technological revolution are driving rapid change in customer expectation. These factors have spawned Google's "Generation C", whose media consumption is unrecognisable from any previous generation. The desire to have a say in shaping the story, in sharing that experience with friends and having the ability to use that content to connect with anyone and everyone has already seen marked shifts in the movie, video gaming and music industries. Football doesn't know what is about to hit it.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Nl9w56BdJfE/VToKOAd-e_I/AAAAAAAAAo0/R89t8kIIzH4/s1600/Picture1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Nl9w56BdJfE/VToKOAd-e_I/AAAAAAAAAo0/R89t8kIIzH4/s1600/Picture1.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Since the start of the economic downturn, virtually every industry sector has experienced a squeezed middle. The survivors of the credit crunch picked a horse early on: they decided to compete either on price or value. Look at the divergence in the automotive industry, supermarkets, restaurants and elsewhere: thriving at the top end, thriving at the bottom; job cuts, downsizing and profit warnings in middle. </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Football has tried to back both horses with the result that we offer a limited, short-lived experience at prices out of kilter with what's going on around us.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Crowds and TV audiences are holding up for the time being, but we cannot assume it's going to stay that way forever. Season Ticket Holders are getting older and most stadia have less connectivity than your average high street coffee shop: that's not going to tick many boxes for the next generation.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The quality of engagement with live content has been eroded by media-multitasking. The younger the demographic, the more pronounced the behaviour. </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Sponsors (especially those seeking D2C engagement) and advertisers&nbsp;are usually a couple of steps ahead of rightsholders: if they start to believe that the model isn't cutting through and they're not getting full value for their money, where does that leave the traditional boards-and-boxes proposition?</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Generation C don't watch live sport. They don't watch it live on TV either. They certainly don't watch late night highlights shows. Their world is Vine - legal or illegal - providing six seconds of instant gratification, wherever they are and on whatever device, before they carry on doing whatever they were doing. A new, D2C&nbsp;media distribution model isn't far away.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Football needs to understand what's around the corner. Fighting it is pointless. The answer is working out how to embrace it. We need a new commercial model, one which is based on investing in brand, customers and staff and thinking about how to deliver the best possible customer experience.&nbsp;A progressive, far-reaching model which recognises that without rolling with the punches, the next generation are just going to switch off and go elsewhere. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">We've had it so good for so long, but the next five years represents a crucial juncture for professional club football. If we get it right we can compete on value. If we don't, we run the real risk of a race to the bottom.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-9239003001413327932014-10-17T08:49:00.003+01:002015-01-29T09:52:10.143+00:00Football Pricing Should be Addressed ... But Not By Politicians<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">As per normal, the BBC's <em><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29614980">Price of Football</a></em>&nbsp;report has stirred up a hornet's nest of debate. </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">In straitened times, the general findings of the study makes for many days' content and debate, not just for the BBC but for the media industry as a whole, particularly as </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">this year it announced that the average cost of the cheapest matchday ticket was up 4.4% on last year.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uMQGSv2KDYM/VEDLtoIiMNI/AAAAAAAAAjE/5DupGshrmlE/s1600/untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uMQGSv2KDYM/VEDLtoIiMNI/AAAAAAAAAjE/5DupGshrmlE/s1600/untitled.png" height="200" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Aside from the fact that 2013's report found that prices had fallen 3.4% versus the previous season, football's position as a lightning rod for wider social concerns remains undiminished. It didn't take the Labour Party long (two days)&nbsp;to announce a wide-ranging set of proposals that - if elected - they would seek to implement, labelling it "the biggest legislative shake-up in the governance of English and Welsh football clubs since the advent of the game".</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">More than anything else, it probably demonstrates that Labour are well and truly on the back foot, seven months ahead of a General Election, an election in which sizeable swathes of their traditional heartland is under attack from the new kids on the political block - UKIP - who are unashamedly talking up their blokey credentials to attract those disaffected by the traditional political choices. What could be more blokey than the cost of football?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The electorate should have no time for policymaking on the hoof, regardless of how populist it may be. The proposals - which include guaranteeing fan representatives on the board and some ownership (precise details to be dreamt up presumably after May 2015) of the club - are wholly unworkable, whether from governance, financial or common sense perspectives. It sounds like a really lovely idea in principle but it's just not rooted in the practicalities of the real, modern&nbsp;world.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Yes, football needs to take a long, hard look at its financing. It's just like any other business: overpricing&nbsp;and/or&nbsp;not providing value (see various other posts on this blog)&nbsp;will have disastrous long-term consequences and there should be massive concerns about football's generally complacent approach to future generations' relationship with the sport. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">What we don't see is politicians wading in over the cost of other leisure pursuits or dictating who sits on the board of theatre companies, music venues or other sports clubs. The logical endgame in Labour's argument would lead to users of Sure deodorant sitting on the board of Unilever. We all know that's not going to happen as it would be unworkable and to be honest, bonkers. Football in general does require comprehensive introspection on its long-term approach to its customers but that process (which is underway in some cases)&nbsp;should be driven by a combination of market forces and common sense, not politicians more interested in marginal constituencies than actually addressing wider economic issues.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-48840056656454548592014-10-08T11:21:00.001+01:002014-10-10T16:46:28.624+01:0038/9th Game: All That Glitters Is Not Necessarily Gold<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9MYTG7OhgdI/VDUQdBRsxaI/AAAAAAAAAi0/umMF-FEHMb4/s1600/Picture1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9MYTG7OhgdI/VDUQdBRsxaI/AAAAAAAAAi0/umMF-FEHMb4/s1600/Picture1.jpg" height="132" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">So, we've got the "Bluebirds" of Cardiff now playing in red, the owner of Hull City refusing to invest any more money until the powers-that-be accede to his demands to rebrand the club and today, the resurfacing of the infamous "39th" FA Premier League game.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">There is a common theme running behind all of these ideas: the belief that for English football's elite, the streets of Bangkok, Mumbai, Los Angeles and Melbourne are paved with gold and that people in those cities are just itching to part with their hard-earned cash to sample just a little bit of the stardust that the FAPL undoubtedly brings.</span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">I have no problem whatsoever with the concept of broadening horizons. Clubs need to diversify their revenue streams, attract new audiences and grow their businesses. I can even understand the thinking between taking an extra (or as it is now being mooted, a regular season) game outside of the UK and think it's worth real consideration. There are multiple pro's as well as the obvious con's, such as which teams play whom and where and what about the fans who've paid for 19 matches as part of their season ticket?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Where I think there is more of an issue is what I believe is the thinking that these marketing tools are all silver bullets, that by playing a regular season (or friendly) match in a particular place will suddenly convert the locals into life-long transactional customers in the process,&nbsp;transforming the business models of the clubs concerned. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">In the same way that - in international terms - it's irrelevant what colour Cardiff play in or what Hull City are called, there will never be a sustainable long-term interest in either club outside of their immediate&nbsp;local markets unless they are prepared to create a genuine long-term strategy to engage with fans in particular markets (as real-world marketing brands do) and invest the time, money and content in a way that attracts their allegiance and willing to spend money themselves.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Likewise, a regular season game for the bigger clubs will be a useful additional tool but without the investment in a year-round strategy in that market, it risks being nothing more than a flash-in-the-pan. In modern football, everyone is looking to generate immediate revenues: the demands of FFP apply to all and the need to keep up with the Bayerns, Madrids and Barcelonas of this world is on the mind of the bigger clubs. That cash needs to be instant: the concept of actually spending money to cement relationships and build brands which then allows larger, smarter future revenues is almost an anathema to the majority of clubs.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">If the 38/9th game is going to go ahead, it needs to be seen not as an end, but as a means to an end. How would this match (assuming of course, it also meets the footballing and wider needs of its hosts) serve to augment, accelerate and validate the year-round programme that has already been taking place? As for the rest of the strategy, clubs need to address their local markets first: there is probably a reason that they're all looking for easy money elsewhere: it's because there has been no long-term strategy for engaging with their local customer base, their bread-and-butter. There is a general lack of understanding of or appreciation for marketing.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Horizons definitely need to be broadened but for&nbsp;the&nbsp;mostpart&nbsp;there is much more that needs to be done closer to home first.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-33883021648176993412014-09-16T12:22:00.000+01:002014-09-17T21:48:30.923+01:00Apple & U2 Partnership Not Quite The Sweetest Thing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-adQ4Pe-dDLs/VBganI5MJtI/AAAAAAAAAic/Tsm1-4FFd5M/s1600/u2.png" height="206" width="400" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">I've got to be honest, I've never really got into U2. Of course musical taste is in the ear of the beholder but I've never understood the fuss about their safety-first, middle-of-the-road, radio friendly rock. "One" may be one of the most beautiful tracks ever written but it's hard to&nbsp;identify any&nbsp;other output of any musical significance&nbsp;since 1991's <em>Achtung Baby</em>. It's all a little beige.&nbsp;I suspect I am not alone in that view.</span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Interesting then, that U2 should find themselves at the centre of a storm this week which has seriously polarised opinion. As part of the much-hyped launch of Apple's iPhone 6 (the reverence with which these launches are covered in mainstream media is another story altogether) and their new Watch product, U2 not only performed at the event but the following day, 500 million&nbsp;iPhone owners around the world found the Irish band's latest album had "mysteriously" appeared on their devices.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">U2 are not the first band to make their material available to download free of charge (Radiohead launched <em>In Rainbows</em> via their official site as far back as 2007) but they are certainly (and possibly not surprisingly) the first to assume that everyone wants their music in their iTunes&nbsp;library. The reaction tells us a lot about how we - the consumer - think. In an age&nbsp;where content downloading, sharing and even ripping is commonplace, you'd think that a free album would go down well with the masses. Not so.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Whilst some users made that very point (with others just suggesting turning off the "automatic download" option on their iTunes) the reaction on Twitter for the most part was outrage that Apple (or U2, the government or even the Illuminati in some instances) can just decide what content should appear on&nbsp;our devices. It demonstrates both the personal attachment that people have to their devices and what their choice of handset and the content of their music library says about them as individuals. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">So, the upshot this morning is that Apple have launched a tool specifically designed to allow users to remove the offending&nbsp;content from their libraries. As a commercial exercise it's hard to work out whether it has been a&nbsp;success or not.&nbsp;Apple reportedly paid U2 &amp; Universal Music $100m for the right to download the new album&nbsp;to 500 million&nbsp;iTunes&nbsp;libraries yet "only" 33 million of those gifted the album have actually downloaded it at the time of writing - which, if the album was for sale through traditional channels - would constitute triple-diamond status in US metrics, but given that it is free of charge and instantly available, actually&nbsp;reflects adoption of less than 7% (and possibly the unwanted official title of the world's most-deleted album). </span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">All of this&nbsp;feels like a poor return for Apple for all the negative sentiment its generated. There is no doubt that their new products will be hugely successful but the smartphone market is a hugely&nbsp;competitive one (iPhone has about 30%&nbsp;in the UK) and alienating parts&nbsp;of its customer base is not a good idea.&nbsp;Perhaps some will be enticed to explore U2's back catalogue and there will be some payback through those channels but looking at the stunt holistically, it would appear to have backfired. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">So why did they do it? Possibly two reasons: U2 and Apple's conflated ego couldn't countenance the possibility that customers couldn't <em>not</em> want their new album and secondly, simply because they could. It's stretching credibility to describe the stunt in Orwellian terms but&nbsp;it does raise huge questions&nbsp;- especially in light of the recent leak of explicit celebrity videos/photos - about cloud security, the&nbsp;trust we&nbsp;place&nbsp;(and the access&nbsp;we allow and information we share) with companies&nbsp;like Apple&nbsp;and the extent to which they are then able to try to dictate what we consume. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">No real harm has been done either by Apple or U2 but it feels like it might have come at the right time, before our brave new technological world really took things too far. We all need to be a little bit more thoughtful about what we presume our customers might want and we - as those customers&nbsp;- need to understand how quickly the world is moving and that&nbsp;we need to be more careful about the permissions we allow those companies.&nbsp;It might also be worth considering that just because something is technologically possible, it doesn't mean it's <em>de facto</em> a good thing to do.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">For those of us who just haven't downloaded the album, it's due to appear in a new Apple marketing campaign so perhaps there really is no escape!</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-53176011904885462022014-09-03T14:41:00.003+01:002014-09-04T11:10:35.753+01:00The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Pt. III<span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> Following on from several previous pieces on this blog (<a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/revolution-will-not-be-televised.html">Part I</a> and <a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised-pt.html">Part II</a>), some very interesting headlines from this year's annual OfCom Communications Report. Apologies for the lengthiness of this piece but it's <em>way </em>shorter than the full report, which can be downloaded </span><a href="http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/market-data/communications-market-reports/"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">There is a plethora of great information in the OfCom report and the content is far too rich to cover the whole report but this blog is interested in the following hypothesis:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- People are still watching television, but they're not <em>really </em>watching it.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- People are increasingly media-multitasking, meaning that whilst the quantity of TV viewing continues to be strong, the quality of engagement is getting poorer.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- The "as live" experience is less important.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- All of these phenomena are <strong>markedly<em> </em></strong>exaggerated the younger the audience.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">So, (as regular readers know) this blog's argument is that sport &amp; entertainment&nbsp;cannot continue to assume it is going remain appointment viewing (neither as a live experience nor live on television). I don't think we have a coherent plan as an industry for extending the "experience" beyond game time; I don't think we have any idea about the importance of second screens; and I doubt we have much of a clue about what choices the Millennials are going to be making as they grow up. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">All I do know is that the landscape is going to be hugely different in ten years' time and we all need to start thinking about it, and fast. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Have a look at these stats and make up your own mind about whether the above hypothesis holds any&nbsp;water:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- TV viewing has remained resilient over time, although there has been a decline since 2010 for younger age groups. Between 2010 and 2012 there was very little change, either at the overall level or among older groups. However, younger people’s viewing decreased during this period, with viewing among 16-24s decreasing from 169 minutes in 2010 to 157 in 2012. Between 2012 and 2013, there was an overall decrease in viewing. Viewing among all individuals (4+) went down from 241 to 232 minutes, and among 16-24s from 157 to 148 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Between 2010 and 2012 there was very little change, either at the overall level or among older groups. However, younger people’s viewing decreased during this period, with viewing among 16-24s decreasing from 169 minutes in 2010 to 157 in 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Between 2012 and 2013, there was an overall decrease in viewing. Viewing among all individuals (4+) went down from 241 to 232 minutes, and among 16-24s from 157 to 148 minutes. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- Live TV accounts for half of the time younger people spend on ‘watching’ activities compared to 69% among all adults. Live TV is followed by just under a fifth (16%) of ‘watching’ time spent on recorded television among UK adults as a whole. In comparison, among 16-24s, only half (50%) of their time spent on ‘watching’ activities is accounted for by live TV.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- A fifth (21%) of their viewing time is spent consuming online content; 13% consuming downloaded/ streamed content and 8% watching short online video clips – a significantly greater proportion than for any other age group.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- Considering all of the time spent on watching activities across a week among 12-15 year olds, just over half (52%) is to live television, compared to 69% for all adults. However, this age group spends a significantly greater proportion of its viewing time than all adults (19% vs. 2%) watching short online video clips.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- Media multi-tasking is undertaken by almost every person. Almost every adult (99%) recorded conducting two or more media activities at the same time at some point during the week. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- However, young people spend as much time on text communications as watching TV or films on a TV set. Among all adults, 37% of total time spent on media and communications activities is attributed to watching TV or films on a television set. However, only a quarter (24%) of the media and communications activity of an average 16-24 year-old is spent doing this, compared to half (49%) for those aged 65 and older. The pattern switches for text communications; for 16-24 year olds, 23% of their media time is spent engaged in this form of activity (such as texting or communicating via social networks) compared to 7% for those aged 65.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- Smartphones are ranked third in terms of time spent on devices across a typical day, after TV and desktops/ laptops. However, their central role in consumers’ lives is particularly evident among those aged 16-24; a quarter of all communications and media time spent by this age group is spent on a mobile phone and 77% of the time they spend on social media is on a mobile phone. The device that shows the largest difference in terms of daily use by age among adults is the smartphone with 16-24 year olds spending over three and a half hours on this device each day (216 mins) versus 82 mins for UK adults.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">If the above was too dry, have a looked as these selected charts:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fwZX1v7zvgs/VAcU2TBYJhI/AAAAAAAAAhI/UQ3Jov4a5LQ/s1600/Picture5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fwZX1v7zvgs/VAcU2TBYJhI/AAAAAAAAAhI/UQ3Jov4a5LQ/s1600/Picture5.png" height="336" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Unsurprisingly, the Millenials (or Google's Gen C (see last blog)) are the most digital-savvy. </span></o:p><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">The below chart is more interesting: of the top ten activities that would be "missed", the live experience - whilst most important to the oldest age category - doesn't even figure in the top ten of the 16-24 year olds.</span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nHhJEyy4lyo/VAcVLleWWUI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/ecrL-kVHXzs/s1600/Picture2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nHhJEyy4lyo/VAcVLleWWUI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/ecrL-kVHXzs/s1600/Picture2.png" height="326" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">The next chart is also unsurprising. Over the past 11 years, the technology most rapidly adopted is the smartphone, followed by the tablet.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iDIpn-7ujj0/VAcVOlYqh_I/AAAAAAAAAhg/k_PCXljduKY/s1600/Picture3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iDIpn-7ujj0/VAcVOlYqh_I/AAAAAAAAAhg/k_PCXljduKY/s1600/Picture3.png" height="382" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">However, what is really interesting is the disparity between what the 16-24 year olds are doing with the tablets and smartphones whilst watching TV. The younger the viewer, the less engaged they are with the live content. </span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><o:p></o:p><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">&nbsp;<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A_ulRlScdUo/VAcXkvNF7LI/AAAAAAAAAhs/Oh25sgAzBVQ/s1600/Picture6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A_ulRlScdUo/VAcXkvNF7LI/AAAAAAAAAhs/Oh25sgAzBVQ/s1600/Picture6.png" height="348" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Lastly, if we <em>still </em>don't believe youngsters are interested in watching either "live" TV or consuming it in the way it's traditionally packaged, have a look at the last two charts:</span></o:p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0ygnQIQaArw/VAcZzdarOsI/AAAAAAAAAiM/MzxPhDortxg/s1600/Picture9.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0ygnQIQaArw/VAcZzdarOsI/AAAAAAAAAiM/MzxPhDortxg/s1600/Picture9.png" height="350" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tLU1D4kDl2M/VAcZwYc0ubI/AAAAAAAAAiE/hEjR2yEoXsw/s1600/Picture10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tLU1D4kDl2M/VAcZwYc0ubI/AAAAAAAAAiE/hEjR2yEoXsw/s1600/Picture10.png" height="360" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><o:p></o:p>&nbsp;</div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-4193691216547499002014-08-18T08:38:00.001+01:002015-05-18T10:04:07.403+01:00The Connected Stadium: We're All Asking the Wrong Question<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ndm5dDjwBSc/U_GtNLk6hUI/AAAAAAAAAg4/Oj-4zcl9sN4/s1600/BR2dUcNCEAAeJoI.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ndm5dDjwBSc/U_GtNLk6hUI/AAAAAAAAAg4/Oj-4zcl9sN4/s1600/BR2dUcNCEAAeJoI.png" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">"What's the RoI model?", as if it's that straightforward. There isn't an RoI model, it's as simple as that. That's not to say there is no point in connecting the stadium - there absolutely is - but approaching the problem in such linear terms is a complete red herring.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">There is a reason that the Connected Stadium vision has never got out of square one in Europe. The reason is that the sellers generally don't understand the buyers and the buyers generally have no idea what they're buying. It's time for a more consensual approach: everyone needs some skin in the game.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">For too long, the sellers have been trying to wow the buyers with their technical solutions. For too long the buyers have had no marketing strategy of their own so they have no idea how the buyer's product might help move them to where they need to be. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">It's high time the sellers stopped selling technology and started selling customer solutions. If the buyers could then utilise those solutions to plug gaps in their strategy then we start to have the makings of an RoI model. Each model will be different, of course.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Of course, that is just the start. Just because customers can get online whilst in your venue doesn't mean you're suddenly going to double sales of your poor quality, overpriced replica shirt (that is another discussion altogether). In the same way that creating a Twitter <a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/it-turns-out-there-is-something-worse.html?m=1">hashtag</a> campaign doesn't suddenly mean you're "engaging" with your customers, your Connected Stadium is a means to an end, it's not a silver bullet.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">We're always looking for short cut, an easy answer to things and like most things that are worth doing, the Connected Stadium model is worth doing properly. Think of it as an alternative to your website: it's a gateway. Beyond that, if your products and services were not selling before, there is probably a reason for it and this new way of selling them isn't going to change that.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The way I see it, the connected experience at entertainment venues by-and-large is behind that of your average coffee shop. The live experience in many people's eyes is lagging way behind the televised experience. Something has got to give: if not for today then what about tomorrow? Google's "<a href="http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/research-studies/introducing-gen-c-the-youtube-generation.html">Generation C</a>", those interested in creation, curation and community aren't interested in appointment viewing, or sitting on their hands for 90 minutes. The only good thing about not being connected is that they can't immediately share their disappointing experience with their network.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The question is not about cost, it's about value creation. We're all in the entertainment business and your customers are all getting better at judging what constitutes value. Connectivity is viewed as an absolute minimum requirement these days, especially by younger consumers (see the bastardisation of Maslow's <em>Hierarchy of Needs, </em>above<em>)</em>. The RoI model needs to be judged not on how many more hot dogs have been sold but on how many people actually turn up in the first place. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The Connected Stadium isn't the entire solution - as I say, it's not that straightforward - but it's a vital part of that jigsaw. The question really needs to be "how can I afford not to Connect?".</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-85213680672704271172014-07-22T08:37:00.003+01:002014-09-04T16:39:26.937+01:00Less X-Factor Please, More Feel Good Factor<span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">The next time you come to an ad break (assuming you don't then go to the toilet, try to reach the next level of Candy Crush on your smartphone or just fast forward through the ads) try watching the various messages through a filter. Ask yourself, is this&nbsp;brand trying to add value to my life?</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Advertisers' brands are obviously all at different levels of maturity and there are some for whom awareness is still the only objective. For those more well known brands, which of them are just selling us stuff, which are trying to wow us with glitzy creatives&nbsp;and which are at least trying to demonstrate that they&nbsp;represent more than just their products?</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">My favourite ad at the moment here in the UK is being run by one of those mature brands - Barclays Bank - who have endured a fairly torrid time in the past five years and who are going through a revamp of their business. Check it out </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LilvVWA561A"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">here.</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">What does getting older people comfortable with using Skype have to do with&nbsp;banking, you might ask. Well, aside from the fact that - like most things - the future of banking is online and the older generation may not be as comfortable with that as you or I may be, I would argue that it doesn't matter. It makes the viewer feel good. It's why - despite being inundated with countless confusing letters and new passwords as Barclays have taken over ING - I personally feel good about Barclays at the moment. I would also argue that this positioning&nbsp;should be the future ambition of all brands.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">We see more and more products as simple commodities, always to be traded based on price. If brands are to be considered on other values such as customer service, value-for-money or just simply making customers&nbsp;proud of being associated with your brand then the hard work starts now. Find out what matters to your customers and help them get there. It will matter less and less whether you are a bank, an automotive producer or a soft drink. Just start making people feel&nbsp;good.&nbsp;</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-35820523933017672022014-07-15T08:43:00.000+01:002014-07-16T10:13:33.699+01:00Five Thoughts on the Adidas / Manchester United Deal<span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Yesterday adidas and Manchester United announced the biggest kit deal in club football history. Here are five thoughts on the deal:</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">1. It's proof that brand association can be more powerful than sporting success. That United still sell more shirts than any other club despite missing out on Champions League football and without a genuine global star in their ranks tells me that whilst heavy investment in a squad for the here-and-now can bring short-term commercial success, if you want to sustain it, you need to invest in your brand.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">2. It's bad news for everyone else. If adidas are returning to their position of a decade ago where they were focussing on a handful of mega-clubs then there will be no room for the multitude of smaller deals they have entered into more recently. There is only so much factory capacity in the world and expect those smaller deals not to be renewed. Ditto Puma/Arsenal. The smaller clubs are going to need to come up with something far more compelling than boards, boxes and 10,000 shirt sales to make the numbers add up. Long-term, the polarisation of the market is not a good thing.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">3. It will be interesting to see the reaction from Stamford Bridge. Chelsea's current deal is worth way more than it was in 2006 when adidas replaced Umbro but there is no comparing United's footprint with Chelsea's in Asia or the US (see thought 1) and whilst each Club attracts different audience segments (especially in Asia) the onus will be on Chelsea to differentiate rather than compete in those markets.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">4. The new entrants into the apparel market are still fighting for scraps. The UK market has seen massive fragmentation in recent years but the new entrants are really going to have to invest heavily to gain the scale they need to make things work for them longer-term. The big boys are still out of reach. Is Southampton's decision to do their own thing the start of a longer-term trend?</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">5. Where now for Nike in the UK? They still have Manchester City and England, but it's interesting to see them letting Arsenal and Manchester United go in such quick time. Complete change of strategy ahead?</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-67665443009615052312014-06-16T12:01:00.000+01:002014-07-22T09:05:53.159+01:00There is Something Worse Than Not Being Talked About<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>"</strong></span>The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about<span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>"</strong></span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">I am not sure what Oscar Wilde would have made of Twitter but&nbsp;w</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">e've been told for the past four or five years or so that&nbsp;the latest&nbsp;mega event is <em>the </em>social event and that the reaction on Twitter, Facebook and every other social platform is where we all need to be focussing our attention. All very interesting but in my view it still doesn't add up to a whole hill of beans, especially when it appears that the social campaign is what the brand is hanging its hat on and, in isolation, makes little or no sense. Even worse, you risk opening yourself to ridicule, as some of the brands trying to use the social media bandwagon to drive home their association with the World Cup.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">As an example - and aside from questions about the relevance or value-add of a mouthwash brand associating itself with a football event -&nbsp;have a look at a sample of&nbsp;the reaction to Listerine's weird and wonderful hashtag #powertoyourmouth:</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uTAZfQoZBXc/U57JJVpaAhI/AAAAAAAAAgo/-_W0fKXAYP0/s1600/Picture1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uTAZfQoZBXc/U57JJVpaAhI/AAAAAAAAAgo/-_W0fKXAYP0/s1600/Picture1.png" height="481" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">This isn't the only bemusing hashtag adorning the World Cup perimeter boards. McDonald's bizarre #Fryfutbol wasn't even mentioned in the&nbsp;30" spot&nbsp;they ran at half time of the opening&nbsp;game in the UK and interestingly I&nbsp;don't think has been seen on their boards&nbsp;since. It may have been pre-planned but </span><a href="http://marketingland.com/mcdonalds-buys-twitters-first-globally-promoted-trend-fryfutbol-backfire-87283"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">this </span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">article suggests that the reaction was&nbsp;so bad that perhaps it might be&nbsp;better&nbsp;to run with a corporate URL than with something&nbsp;that makes no sense.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">I am a big&nbsp;fan of social media but I see it&nbsp;as a means to an end, a support mechanism, which when integrated into a well thought out campaign can deliver great value. On its own it loses&nbsp;context:&nbsp;It is not a silver bullet and&nbsp;in an increasingly cluttered social landscape - as with every other marketing&nbsp;campaign - brands need a really creative and relevant message to encourage people to&nbsp;engage with it. Social media's real-time "measurability" appears too often to replace genuine RoI measures and I would argue, leads to laziness and complacency. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Brands need to remember that people do genuinely love these events. They are not stupid and recognise inauthenticity at 100 yards. Ironically, social media can just as quickly break as make a campaign and shouldn't be taken lightly: as the commentator above says, it doesn't become a thing people talk about just because you've put a hashtag in front of it</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-12781717190774330412014-06-03T08:28:00.001+01:002015-06-05T10:20:05.286+01:00Let's Kill Category Exclusivity<span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">We all know how the "sponsor hierarchy" works. One company per category - if they fit with "our" values and activate, even better&nbsp;- with exclusivity within that category and still too often, a "package" of rights. </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">My view is that this model is outdated and means that the rightsholder leaves a whole lot on the table and that the customer experience is hugely diminished as a consequence. The&nbsp;sponsor is also missing out.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Imagine if - as a seller - you could have more than one partner in each category. Imagine as a consumer, you had access to a range of official alternatives and you could choose whichever best fitted your budget, lifestyle, image or whatever.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">There would obviously be a reluctance from brands but it's all in the execution. Imagine now, as a brand sponsor, if you could share your category&nbsp;with two competitors but that the rightsholder had a mechanism for activating only to your target audience.&nbsp;You might be an upmarket&nbsp;automotive company.&nbsp;Are you really that&nbsp;bothered if there is someone else marketing to the C2DE segments? Imagine if you were sharing the rights fee between the three of you. That RoI model looks a lot easier to justify.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">As a&nbsp;consumer you're given a&nbsp;choice. You're not limited by regressive legislation hampering your enjoyment or&nbsp;by lazy brands just trying to&nbsp;block out competitors. You can vote with your&nbsp;wallet, you feel more valued, more engaged and more likely to&nbsp;interact&nbsp;(and transact) with that rightsholder.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">And if you're selling, then imagine the possibilities opened up&nbsp;by&nbsp;non-exclusivity. Fewer barriers to entry, at&nbsp;least as much revenue, more marketing potential and happier (hopefully retained) customers. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">What about clutter, I&nbsp;hear you ask? Clutter doesn't come into it as the model is not predicated on exposure. Broadcast&nbsp;activation&nbsp;is sooooo last decade. This is the age of one-to-one activation.&nbsp;This is the age of partnerships, customer-centricity and lifetime value. This is about understanding your customers are not one homogenous mass, each has a set of demands and desires. Start with understanding that and build your sponsorship model around it. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Exclusivity caters only for the needs of the buyer and seller. Imagine the long-term benefits to both of&nbsp;the model serving the interests of those they're supposed to be engaging with.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-44029162678882689712014-04-04T11:54:00.003+01:002014-04-07T12:39:46.775+01:00Ten Conclusions from the 2nd ESA Summit<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">We always knew that it would be an iterative process and whilst perhaps the second <a href="http://www.twitter.com/europsponsassoc">European Sponsorship Association</a> Summit wasn’t epoch-changing, it was hugely successful in achieving its objectives of taking last year’s debate to the next stage, inviting our peer group to examine <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">exactly </i>what constitutes value and to broaden the debate to a wider marketing audience. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><o:p><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">&nbsp;</span></o:p><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">The great thing about the Summit is that it’s an open debate with no agenda other than putting issues on the table, trying to find solutions and attempting to raise standards. If some of the feedback is that we are sometimes too hard on ourselves then I believe that’s a good thing: we’re always being told that acknowledging we may have a problem is the first – and vital – step and we’re never going to improve without that self-awareness.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">ESA is sometimes dismissed as being no more than a talking shop but there is a huge difference between introspection and navel-gazing and as the industry body I believe it should be commended for taking the bull by the horns and trying to lead the thought agenda. What ESA now needs is the committed support of the industry it’s trying to represent as it is in all our interests to do so: a strong ESA should mean a strong sponsorship industry.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Below are ten things I took from the ESA Summit and whilst some of them may not necessarily be new ideas, it’s great to see them gaining more traction. Those that were present will be able to draw their own (and maybe slightly different) conclusions from the day. Those that weren’t should have a read of the <a href="http://www.unofficialpartner.com/">Unofficial Partner blog</a> or pick up the Twitter thread #ESASponSummit. <o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><strong>The “old” ways must change</strong>. Regulation, legislation and the category-based model is hampering creativity and therefore dulling the customer experience. The fact that representatives of FIFA sponsors don’t seem to be able to refer to the World Cup as just “the World Cup” even in this company (sorry Paul, not having a go, I was the same when working on Philips’ 2006 World Cup sponsorship) is symptomatic of the fact we’ve lost sight of what we should actually be emphasising: it’s not about FIFA, it’s about the fans.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><strong>Seriously, forget definitions</strong>. “Sponsorship”, “Partnership”, or even “Fusion” (offered by the entertaining and insightful <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fruhazlitt">Fru Hazlitt</a> of ITV) don’t matter. The customer isn’t debating what it’s called, all they care about is how whatever it is we’re doing makes them feel. <o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong></strong></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><strong>Beware the Emperor’s new clothes</strong>. Regardless of what anyone says, we’re still a little scared of technology but all it is doing is allowing us to do what we’ve always tried to do – connect with our target audiences – just in a slightly different way. Fru “detonated” a whole load of words in her presentation, one of which was “paradigm”: regardless of how exciting new ways and means may be, the end should remain the same.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><strong>Get past the fluff</strong>. I think this is the first Sponsorship event I’ve been to where almost everyone was in agreement that media value is a dying, commoditised measurement. There were various other thoughts on what constitutes a valuable metric but<a href="http://www.twitter.com/mattrogansport"> Matt Rogan</a> summed it up best: we ought to be focussing solely on number of customers, retention rates, average revenue per customer and when subtracting costs, that’s your profit. “The rest is just fluff”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span><strong>Likes &amp; RTs are the new global fan numbers. </strong>Evaluation needs to be taken in the context of wider, longer-term considerations. Back to point 3, Facebook likes and retweets don’t add up to a whole hill of beans.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><strong>We all need to be more open with each other</strong>. Too few people believe in the power of sponsorship because we’ve been hopeless as an industry in shouting about our successes. A big reason for that is that outcomes are too often “client confidential”. We’re all in this together and we need to be more collaborative, open and honest. We also need to think longer-term: if we’re overselling something we’re setting ourselves up to fail. Sure, we might hit short-term targets but if that sponsor then fails to renew and worse, writes off sponsorship as a whole, where does that then leave our industry as a whole? <o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><strong>There’s a trust deficit</strong>. Being more honest is a start and putting the customers first is a vital next step but to amplify the “success” message we need to build better relationships with the media. Whilst we all tear our hair out at the “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how much can [INSERT LATEST STAR} earn from sponsorship of the back of his/her success</i>?” question, we need to be proactive in ensuring the media are focussing on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real</i> sponsorship stories. Perhaps we need to be better, as <a href="http://www.twitter.com/owen_g">Owen Gibson</a> suggested, at linking our agenda to the wider news agenda.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong></strong></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><strong>Bland is a false economy. </strong>Brands and rightsholders alike are not helping us achieve this by over-training and thus sanitising said “stars”: it’s not just giving the media very little to play with, it is short changing the fans. Revisiting my first conclusion, if it’s not for them, then what’s it all about?<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><strong>Where’s sponsorship’s legacy?</strong> If we’re trying to think long-term, we’re being more honest, trying to relate to what our customers care about and we agree that the old model needs a rethink then we need to start putting our “sustainability” caps on. CSR considerations are often bolted onto sponsorship activities rather than being a core driver as commercial success and if doing the right thing are mutually-exclusive. <a href="http://www.twitter.com/sallyhancock1">Sally Hancock</a>talked about the need to return the “integrity” to our industry: just think how much sponsorship could be advanced if we put legacy and sustainability right at the forefront of our strategies, rather than it being a “nice-to-have”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong></strong></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><strong>Let’s stop fishing in the same pond. </strong>Refreshing, again to hear how few people Matt Rogan has hired into Two Circles from the sports marketing (how I hate that term – it’s either marketing or it isn’t!) industry. To achieve all of the above we really need to widen our gene pool. Introspection is fine but insularity is not. The ESA Summit is designed to get us all thinking and the broader that debate the better it is for all of us.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-18042346618484255002014-03-27T09:32:00.000+00:002014-03-28T09:19:57.992+00:00Ten Reasons YOU should be at the ESA Summit<span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">I am passionate about great sponsorship. If you only go to one event this year, it should be the <a href="http://www.twitter.com/europsponsassoc">ESA </a>Summit, next Thursday April 3rd at 30 Euston Square, London. For more information, click <a href="http://www.sponsorship.org/content/sponsorship-summit-2014/index.asp">here</a>. If you are also passionate about great sponsorship, here are ten reasons I think you should be there:</span><br /><br /><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: large;">1.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->This is the pre-eminent thought-leadership event in the sponsorship calendar. This is not a navel-gazing exercise, it’s about asking ourselves tough questions and working damned hard to find the right answers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: large;">2.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"></span></span></span><!--[endif]-->There is no selling, there are no case studies, there are no holds barred. This is a meeting of people who genuinely care about the future path of our industry and how we remain relevant.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: large;">3.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp; </span></span></span>It is not just about sponsorship in the traditional sense. ESA recognises it’s increasingly difficult to define what sponsorship is and what it isn’t. That’s why you’ll hear from and meet people you don’t tend to come across at other events.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: large;">4.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->This is a high level event. Actual decision makers debating genuine issues, leading to actual decisions being made, for the good of the entire industry.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: large;">5.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->This is not about market share. It’s about growing the size of the market. Everyone here recognises the importance of raising standards and challenging norms and how that will benefit everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: large;">6.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->It’s about sharing best practice, from within and outwith the industry and from across the globe. It’s about both imparting knowledge and learning.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: large;">7.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->It’s about data and social media, technology and engagement, customer insight and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actual </i>return on investment. You won’t find many championing media value here.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: large;">8.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->We recognise this is an ongoing debate so we will address the key topics that arose last year and measure how far we’ve come, as well as identifying others which have arisen in the past year. This is all about the long-term strategic direction of our industry,<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> <o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: large;">9.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->It’s about substance rather than style, quality rather than quantity. We’re not interested in a huge delegate list if those people are not prepared to make a contribution. If you feel you’ve got something to say, you should be here, saying it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: large;">10.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->We’ve sorted out the Wi-Fi!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-11753622528938294072013-08-03T12:00:00.000+01:002015-02-16T08:35:07.118+00:00The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Pt. II<span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">It seems only yesterday (in fact it was 15 years ago!) that I was co-authoring a report for MasterCard, entitled "The Revolution Will Be Televised" which helped form the basis for their football strategy over the following years.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">It is also amazing how quickly the world of marketing can change. In 2013, the argument has flipped 180 degrees. The publication this week of Ofcom's Communications Market Report 2013 threw up some interesting statistics, which I feel will have a huge bearing on the future of the sponsorship market.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">The headline was that it was 1950 all over again and the TV was the magnet around which the entire family was drawn. The sub-heading was that this was because many of us like to "media multi-task" and the televised content was either being used as the catalyst for social media-based conversations ("media meshing") or as background noise whilst performing other activities, such as gaming or emailing ("media stacking").</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Whether technology is driving our behaviour or <em>vice versa</em>&nbsp;can be debated but it is clear that the&nbsp;rise of smartphones and tablets is a massive contributor to our changing behaviour. Data suggests that it's only going to become more pronounced.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">So, what does this mean for sport? Well, if quantitative audience numbers count for little then sponsors should be pressing for depth and quality of audience engagement data. If broadcasters can't prove that the audiences are actually paying attention then the value of media-based sponsorships must be called wholly into question. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">How many rightsholders have a second-screen strategy? What are we as an industry doing to engage (both physically and digitally) with our target audiences? The Ofcom data only tracks adult behaviour but there is much evidence to suggest that the younger the customer segment, the more likely it is to be media multitasking, which raises yet more questions about how we engage with them as physical customers in the future. What is clear however is that w</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">e just can't rely on TV to do our work for us.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><em>Read Pt.I of this article <a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/revolution-will-not-be-televised.html">here</a>, published in November 2011</em></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-32380030335840960682013-05-13T10:57:00.000+01:002014-09-03T16:06:24.226+01:00We Watch TV But We No Longer See<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.kickass-creatives.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/We-look-but-dont-see-lo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.kickass-creatives.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/We-look-but-dont-see-lo.jpg" height="171" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">It's the big game tonight, you've been looking forward all week to settling down on the sofa to watch it on your big TV screen. The game kicks off and the action is underway. What are you doing at this point? Anecdotal conversations in recent weeks with people&nbsp;- all of whom are interested or work&nbsp;in sport - seem to confirm the data which suggests nowadays we are watching but we just don't see.&nbsp;The rise of the second screen&nbsp;opens up massive opportunities but it's another nail in the&nbsp;media-value coffin.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">I asked the panel&nbsp;at&nbsp;an industry event last week, for how long sport could remain beholden to the media value model. Whilst the panel acknowledged that the model is changing, they were not alone in missing the point that regardless of the vast audiences that watch live sport, we're just not engaged with the content we consume. Where&nbsp;Tivo-style technology allows us to fast forward through advertising*, our changing behaviour renders in-match advertising increasingly obsolete.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">My&nbsp;suggestion that in 2013 such branding is&nbsp;nothing more than wallpaper was just not something the panel could identify with. I don't&nbsp;agree that there is no value in media&nbsp;but it should be no more than the authentification of the partnership,&nbsp;confirming the right to play. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The media model is not going to die anytime soon, but its role within sponsorship packages needs an urgent rethink. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Our behaviour is changing. We are time poor, technology enables us to multi-task&nbsp;and&nbsp;we are increasingly impatient with things that don't offer a quick hit. It's not just live sport, but we just don't watch TV the way we used to. We are simply not engaged with the content we're viewing and the sponsorship&nbsp;model urgently needs a new value-driver.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The match itself takes place before, during and after the 90 minutes and in myriad places (both digital and physical)&nbsp;far from the stadium, which is where the value opportunities lie.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><em>* One industry colleague tells me he regularly watches football on Sky+&nbsp;on x6 speed, stopping only when there is an noteworthy incident. How valuable are his eyeballs?</em></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-32098481281902594172013-05-03T13:46:00.000+01:002013-07-25T08:43:50.419+01:00Five Key Issues Facing The European Sponsorship Industry<span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Regular readers of this blog will know that last week, the </span><a href="http://www.twitter.com/europsponsassoc"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">European Sponsorship Association</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"> (ESA) hosted its inaugural sponsorship Summit at which the industry gathered to debate the main issues facing our industry. Taking into account my own <a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/10-conclusions-from-esasummit.html">ten conclusions</a> from the Summit and feedback from delegates, here are the five key issues I see facing our industry. I am standing for election to the Board of ESA later this month and I&nbsp;think I am well-positioned to help address each of these concerns and I hope I can count on your vote!</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">It's All About The Kids</span></h3><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">They say that there's no subsitute for experience but&nbsp;some at the Summit were bemoaning the lack of young talent coming into the industry. I agree to an extent but it is&nbsp;encumbent on us as&nbsp;a whole&nbsp;to make ourselves the industry of choice for youngsters wanting to break into the world of marketing. That means we need to promote ourselves better, provide fair compensation and take the time to encourage and develop young talent.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">It Takes Three To Tango</span></h3><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">One of the best questions at the Summit was asking why we had so few rightsholders present. It wasn't for the lack of invites. If we are going to take the consensual approach the Summit was advocating we need to bring more rightsholders into the fold. Having worked on that side of the fence, it's all too easy to see sellers as the big bad wolf.</span><br /><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Comfort In Our Own Skin</span></h3><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">It's been repeated <em>ad infinitum</em> but we need to be more confident about the important role sponsorship plays within the marketing mix. That role is only going to become more marked as the need for content grows. A new, consensual approach ought to help us come out of our shell and present a more united front to industry (and wider) media. </span><br /><br /><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">There Is Such A Thing As Society</span></h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Perhaps a topic for next year's Summit, sponsorship needs to demonstrate its relevance within the context of wider social and economic concerns. This isn't just about preventing legislation against certain sectors, it's about understanding that we can't&nbsp;just bask in reflected glory&nbsp;and ignore the issues&nbsp;(the various protests against Olympic sponsors last summer showed us that) and recognising that the private sector has a huge role to play in legacy planning and development. I wrote about this <a href="http://benwells1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/could-social-agenda-drive-longer-term.html">last May </a>and I can't really see that much has happened - this is a very real concern and it's only going to become more important.</span><br /><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span>&nbsp;</h3><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Technology, Technology, Technology</span></h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">A key topic from the Summit. Technology on its own is not a panacea for all ills. It's equally not something to be afraid of and the opportunities that harnessing it in the right way offer are quite awesome. We need to make sure that we are maintaining&nbsp;the thought leadership position to ensure we remain front of mind when client solutions are required.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-59616227727115685432013-04-26T08:13:00.000+01:002014-03-20T15:52:31.575+00:00Ten Conclusions From The #ESASummit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://identitypr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/10-Ways-to-Realize-Hidden-Opportunities-300x199.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div><a href="http://identitypr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/10-Ways-to-Realize-Hidden-Opportunities-300x199.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://identitypr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/10-Ways-to-Realize-Hidden-Opportunities-300x199.jpg" height="132" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Yesterday saw the inaugural <a href="http://www.twitter.com/europsponsassoc" target="_blank">ESA</a> Sponsorship Summit ("Debating the Future Of The Sponsorship Industry"), a hugely-welcomed step by our industry association to take a leadership position in a rapidly-evolving market. Here are ten things I took away from the day:</span><br /><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">We need a far more consensual approach</span></h3><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Grow market share, or take a similar slice of a much bigger market? It's in everyone's interests to grow the market and we need a far more collaborative mindset.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Sponsorship should be answering an unmet need</span></h3><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Leave it to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/sallyhancock1" target="_blank">Sally Hancock</a> to provide (for me, at least), the most succinct summary of the role sponsorship should be playing. How many brands (or rightsholders) think like that?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span></span><br /><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Forget definitions</span></h3><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The industry is evolving rapidly. Whereas it was fairly straightforward even five years ago to define "sponsorship", in 2013 it's a futile debate which is distracting us from the main issue, which is how we harness technology and trends in social behaviour to engage with our target markets.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span></span><br /><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Where were the rightsholders?</span></h3><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Amongst a stellar line-up of speakers and delegates we had a mere handful of rightsholders present. Is the sponsorship acquisition market so buoyant that rightsholders feel that they don't need to contribute to the debate? </span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Legislation is a crutch for the unimaginative</span></h3><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Worried about being ambushed? Drown them out, don't rely on heavy-handed legislation which tends to alienate much of your target market. The Olympic Act and its like creates a mindset that legislation is more effective than powerful activation.</span><br /><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">There's still too much emphasis on transactional value</span></h3><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Regular readers of this blog will know my thoughts on the evolution of the model but whilst there was a general consensus that whilst&nbsp;we should be more open to genuine marketing partnerships, there is still dogmatic over-emphasis on cash-for-rights.</span><br /><br /><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Over-analysis could kill creativity</span></h3><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Whilst we are all excited by the focus and the ability to evaluate in real-time that data can provide, it's still about the "big idea". We shouldn't become slaves to insight.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">We must get better at telling our own story</span></h3><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Not the first time readers of this blog will have seen that headline but we need many more people like <a href="http://www.twitter.com/kimskildumreid" target="_blank">Kim Skildum-Reid</a>, who are able to elucidate <em>exactly</em> what we do and how sponsorship drives value.</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Sponsorship executives should be the most rounded marketers</span></h3><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Because good sponsorship pervades all marketing disciplines,&nbsp;we<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> are seeing more CMO's stepping up from a sponsorship role. This is&nbsp;a great opportunity for us to reinforce the potency of our industry.</span></span><br /><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span>&nbsp;</h3><h3><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Sponsorship is a privilege</span></h3><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Another brilliant soundbite from Kim. Sponsorship is about enhancement, not exploitation. Sponsorship is not about the brand and it's certainly not about the rightsholder. It's all about the target audience. If you're not improving their experience, you're in the wrong game.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">I could probably have written another ten conclusions, such was the quality of the content. If you were there yesterday, please do share your thoughts. If you weren't, then make sure you're there next year!</span><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Additional Reading from the ESA Summit</span></strong><br />- <a href="http://www.twitter.com/richardgillis1"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Richard Gillis</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">'&nbsp;superb review of the Summit&nbsp;can be found </span><a href="http://www.unofficialpartner.co.uk/?p=3235&amp;utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=11-things-that-go-through-your-mind-at-an-esa-summit"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- </span><a href="http://www.twitter.com/nickykc"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Nicola Kemp</span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">'s feature in <em>Marketing</em> is </span><a href="http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1180364/Five-ways-technology-blurring-sponsorship-model?DCMP=EMC-CONMarketingDailyBulletin&amp;bulletin=marketingdaily"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">- <a href="http://www.twitter.com/sallyhancock1">Sally&nbsp;Hancock</a>'s thoughts are <a href="http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1180100/Lloyds-Olympic-marketer-warns-sponsors-seen-necessary-evil">here</a></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6795088569493510904.post-19678809692296287362013-04-19T12:09:00.001+01:002014-09-04T16:42:37.380+01:00This Time It's For Real: Content is Definitely, Absolutely, Certainly Now King<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k0aNRQJeT8E/UXEuTaMzzcI/AAAAAAAAAfY/RnzBgrBFtNg/s1600/Picture1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>&nbsp;</div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><em>This article appears in the first-English language version (April 2013 edition) of <a href="http://www.twitter.com/sportoconf" target="_blank">Sporto</a> Magazine &amp; I am delighted to be speaking at the Sporto annual conference in Slovenia on November 21/22 this year.</em></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://blogs.sfu.ca/departments/continuingstudies/wiredreporter/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/content-marketing-300x169.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://blogs.sfu.ca/departments/continuingstudies/wiredreporter/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/content-marketing-300x169.jpg" height="112" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">What is Sponsorship? It’s a question that has been batted around the industry certainly since I started out in it, and long-before even then. I am of the opinion that is doesn’t really matter, even moreso given the dynamic developments of the wider marketing sector. Technology and a social evolution have led to a fundamental change in the way that individuals expect brands, sports and everyone else to communicate with them. Long-gone are the days of “push” communications, where the content-owner sends out its message at a given time without the ability for the target audience to reply. We’ve even moved quickly beyond the “push-pull” model where there is some feedback (and ideally some moderation of the initial message). </span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">W</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">e are in an age where everyone ought to be pulling together and this is where the traditional definitions become increasingly blurred. <span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">How brands interact with us has been driven by rapid advancements in the retail sector, underpinned by what analysts like to call “big data”.</span> Huge stores of information on your purchase behaviour, allied to trend and predictive analytics and the ability to suggest similar product choices means on the one-hand an easier retail experience and on the other, worries about Big Brother knowing far too much about you, and being able to entice you to spend more. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">The media sector has also evolved rapidly. Whereas even ten years ago it was pretty clearly-defined who was a media owner, in 2013 most people have realized that each and every one of us can create content and rather than consume someone else’s output, we are all able to share that which we create ourselves. Peer-to-peer marketing is not only relatively easy and cost-effective but it comes with the implied endorsement of someone whose opinion you trust. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">The ability to target the right audience at the right time and with the right message, knowing full well that they will be receptive and be more than likely to share their experiences means that the rise of experiential marketing will continue. <span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">People don’t want to hear about your brand story anymore, they want to be a part of it and the richer their experience, the more likely they are to involve others.</span> So where does this leave sponsorship? </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Well, having the ability to tailor your communications to your various audiences, their potential to disseminate it still further amongst their peer group and the opportunity and expectation that they will be a part of its evolution are all pretty meaningless without having some meaningful content with which to engage them. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">The pulling-together analogy applies fully here. The days of the brand-rightsholder model ought to be evolving to the stage where each party has realized they’re trying to engage with the same audience and they are working together to provide a more meaningful experience for them and by involving that audience – not just as a recipient – all parties will reap the rewards. <span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-size: large;">Engaged, motivated customers who feel that they have genuinely had a role in the development of something they love and feel a part of are far more likely to remain loyal and recommend it to their fellow-customers</span>.</span> </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">This is, for me, the role of sponsorship in 2013 and it is one which I believe we should be embracing as an opportunity rather than threat. It is true that the revolution within the marketing industry means that the traditional sponsorship model is increasingly less relevant – Red Bull Stratos should be telling other brands that they don’t need to buy others’ content and it should be telling rightsholders that they need to reevaluate what and how they are selling – but if we can recognize that the times, they are a-changing, this could be the making of the sponsorship industry.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">&nbsp; </span> <br /><em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We will be discussing this and more at the ESA Summit at the BFI on April 25th. For more information on the ESA Summit, click </span></em><a href="http://www.sponsorship.org/content/sponsorship-summit/index.asp" target="_blank"><em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">here</span></em></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em>, it's sure to be a fantastic eve</em><em>nt.</em></span> <div class="blogger-post-footer">Follow me on Twitter @ben_wells1</div>Ben Wellshttps://plus.google.com/101379230452773876243noreply@blogger.com0